USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > History of Newton, Massachusetts : town and city, from its earliest settlement to the present time, 1630-1880 > Part 21
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In 1705 seven families living near West Roxbury and Dedham, William Ward, Edward Ward, Philip White, Nathaniel Healy, Daniel Colburn, Benjamin Wilson and Elizabeth Bacon, com- plained of their great distance from the meeting-house, and showed that they attended worship for the most part in Roxbury ; and they asked to have the meeting-house removed to a more central place. No immediate measures were taken for their relief; but this was the first step towards the location of the First Parish church in its present position. Eight years later, and two months after the death of Mr. Hobart, this petition was presented in town meeting :
To the inhabitants of Newton, now assembled at a public town meeting in said town.
The humble petition of us whose names are underwritten, inhabitants in the south part of Newton, October 31, 1712, humbly sheweth, --
That whereas our habytations are very far from the place of publick worship in Newtown, the neerest of us fore miles and an half and the farthest about five miles, and we cante attend the publick worship in Newtown without great difi- kulty to us and our families, espeshely in the winter season, by reson
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
hereof we are nessesitated to be at charge to the setling a minester in the south part of Roxberry.
Your petitioners humbly pray the inhabitants of this town to grant to us and our heirs that shall inherit the land which we now inhabit that we may be free from the charge of the meeting house and ministry in Newtown.
And your petitioners, as in duty bound shall ever pray. Signed by Nathaniel Hcaly, and five others.
At a town meeting, November 17, 1712, VOTED, The Committy then chosen, which were Ebenezar Stone, Abraham Jackson, Thomas Oliver, Ed- ward Jackson take care to provid ministers for the town til March, if the town be not supplied with a minister before that time.
On the above petition, the town voted to give the petitioners in the south part of the town an answer at the next March meeting. The following is the record of the action of the town, dodging the question rather than meeting it :
March 22, 1713 .- At a towne meeting regularly assembled for to consider of sum dificultyes arising as to the standing of the present meeting-house, it was voted that a committe be chosen and that the towne be messured; and, the center of it being found and the situation of ye inhabitanc and the meeting-house being dewly considered, that if we canot peacably agree to the making of any agreeable and needfull acomodations with respect to ye place of publick worship, that we will then mutually refer ourselves to ye hon- erble Generall Court,-that they would send a Committe of disinterested persons that may hear, dewly weigh and consider thercof; and that they may conclude what may be most for ye interest of religion and the common good and benifit. And wee oblige ourselves to be decided by such their re- sult and the resolution of the Honerabell Generall Court thereupon, and sitt downe quictly and peacably.
At the same meeting this vote was passed :
VOATED yt Left'n Jeremiah Fuller, Cap. Thomas Printic and Corpll. Robert Murdock be chosen a Commity to mess're the towne of said Newton, to find out the center thercof. And allso hand-voated that Lefton (lieutenant) Joseph Burnap shal be ye survayor to do the worke of messuering said towne; and if said Lefton Joseph Burnap cannot be obtained, that then the above named Commitye shall have full power [to appoint] another person to be ye surveyor; and allso ye said Commitie by order from the Selectmen, shall draw monye out of the towne tresury for ye defraying of ye chargics of messuering the towne. And yt. the towne be messuered as soon as can be convenient, not exceeding the first day of May next.
A petition having been presented by the aggrieved parties for the division of the town into two precincts for the worship of God, at the town meeting May 10, 1714, the following action was taken :
VOATED, at a towne mecting regularly assembled to consider of and to se if any agreeabell acommodations [can be made] as to ye place of publick
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ELECTION OF MR. COTTON.
worship,-the inhabitanc of said towne having dewly considered ye center of the towne, the incomodiosnes of the place whear it is, and the cituation of the inhabitanc the inconveniances of highways ; so that it cannot anye ways tend to ye promoting of religion nor any great advantig to any pertickular persons, so as to countervaine ye cost and chargies,-we do judge it best to continue the meeting-house where it now stands.
Finally, a committee of seven was appointed to petition the Great and General Court " to send a committee to hear our differ- ences as to the place of public worship, according to the vote passed March 22, 1713, for that end."
The following records the advice of the Court :
At a sessions of the great and general Court or Assembly, begun and held at Boston upon Wednesday, May 27, 1713,-Upon a full hearing of the several petitions from Newtown, referring to the division of Newtown into two pre- cincts for the worship of God, or the removal of the present meeting-house toward the center of the town, and pertickelarly the dismission of the six familys lying next to the southerly part of Roxbury,-
VOTED and advised that the town do alow the six familys lying next Roxbury to atend the worship of God at that precinct, and be acordingly dismissed from baring any charge to the suport of the ministry in Newtown dureing their attendance and contributing to the ministry in Roxbury ; but see no reason to remove the present meeting-house in Newtown, and direct that the inhabitants of the said town prosed peaceably to settell and estab- lish a learned orthodox minister of good conversation amongst them as the law directs.
ISAAC ADDINGTON, Sec.
In conformity with the recommendation of the Court, the town proceeded to the election of a minister in place of Mr. Hobart. The candidates whose names were before the town were Mr. Henry Flynt, Mr. Edward Holyoke, Mr. John Tufts, Mr. Ebenezer Wil- liams and Mr. John Cotton. "It was voated, by a clear voate of the inhabitance then assembled, that they did choose Mr. John Cotton to be theire minister." This vote was passed March 22, 1714. He was to receive eighty pounds annually for his salary, and a hundred and fifty pounds for his "incorigment ; " and Deacon Jackson, Ensign John Kenrick, Captain Tudor, Mr. Abraham Jackson and John Staples were appointed "to treat with him to come and preach among us in order to a settlement."
The five candidates above named were all graduates of Harvard College, -- John Cotton, 1710 ; Edward Holyoke, 1705,-afterwards librarian and Fellow of the college and the tenth president, (1769) ; Mr. John Tufts, 1708 (d. 1750) ; Ebenezer Williams, 1709
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
(d. 1753) ; and Mr. Henry Flynt, 1693, (d. 1760). The last named, Mr. Henry Flynt, is an object of special interest to every gradu- ate of Harvard University. He was never ordained, but preached as occasion required, and published a volume of twenty sermons, ".which were received acceptably by the public." Dr. Chauncy says of him, "I was forty years frequently conversant with him, and knew him to have been a solid, judicious man, and one of the best of preachers." Though naturally inclined to indolence, he treas- ured up a great variety of useful knowledge, and was an able and faithful instructor. He was distinguished for his firmness and consistency. To the principles he had once adopted, he ad- hered without wavering. Judge Wingate says, " I remember very distinctly hearing him preach for Dr. Appleton when I was a Freshman. He was the slowest speaker that I ever heard preach, without exception. He hardly kept connected in his discourse so as to make progress. However, he made some amends for this defect by the weight and pertinency of his ideas. He was thought to be a judicious and able preacher, but not very popular. . . . He undoubtedly was considered as a useful instructor in the college, or he would not have been continued so long in office. I have often heard that he was regarded as mild in the government of his pupils, and used to be an advocate for gentleness towards offenders. I have been told that he would make an apology for them by remark- ing that 'wild colts often make good horses.'" It is perhaps to the parish of Newton that Mr. Peirce refers, when he says of Mr. Flynt, "It was proposed in some parish to invite him to take the pastoral charge of it; but objections were made to him on the ground that he was believed not to be orthodox. Being informed of this judgment of the good people respecting his religion, he coolly observed, 'I thank God, they know nothing about it.'" Either his sermons must have been very indefinite, or he must have regarded the people as very undiscerning hearers, to render it pos- sible for him to make such a remark. Mr. Flynt was a tutor in the College for upwards of fifty-five years, and a Fellow of the Cor- poration about sixty years. No other person has been so long connected with the University in either of these capacities, or prob- ably in any capacity, except Dr. Appleton, pastor of the church in Cambridge, who was a Fellow sixty-two years.
By a subsequent vote, fifty pounds were added to Mr. Cotton's salary, with a proposal to " add thereto at any time, and from time
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MR. COTTON'S MINISTRY.
to time such farther suplyes as he should stand in need of, for his honorable suport or yearly sallery." On the fourth of October of the same year, it was voted to give Mr. Cotton one hundred pounds as a yearly salary, " when he shall come to have a fammely." A committee of ten was appointed to make arrangements for his ordination, with the privilege of drawing money out of the treas- ury to defray the charges.
Mr. Cotton's ministry in Newton continued from November 3, 1714, till his death, May 17, 1757. His father was Rev. Roland Cotton, of Sandwich (H. C. 1685), his grandfather, Rev. John Cotton of Plymouth (H. C. 1657), and his great grandfather, the celebrated Rev. John Cotton, one of the first ministers of Boston, and previously minister of Boston, in Lincolnshire, Eng- land, a place noted in the annals of the persecuted Puritans. The English Boston is a place of some importance, situated on both sides of the river Witham, one hundred and seventeen miles north of London. Boston is said to have been so named, in com- pliment to that eloquent preacher, as soon as it was known that he had embarked for this country. Mr. Cotton, of Newton, was born in 1693, and graduated from the University when he was only seventeen years of age. He first preached in Newton, July 14, 1714, as a candidate for the vacant pulpit. His text was Heb. II : 3, " How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" "So high was the respect cherished for the virtues and accomplish- ments of this youth of twenty, that the town in general went in procession to meet him and gave him a joyful welcome, upon his first entrance into it." Mr. Jackson remarks that the recorded votes and doings of the town show a great anxiety on the part of the inhabitants to secure his services. He was ordained Novem- ber 3, 1714, about four months after he commenced preaching as a candidate. He is said to have been faithful, fervent, and suc- cessful in his labors. In 1715 Mr. Cotton purchased of the heirs of his predecessor in the pastorate, about one hundred acres of land, with house and barn. The dwelling-house built by Mr. Hobart in 1678, was burned March 24, 1720, and this new one was erected on the same site. In later years it was known as the homestead of Mr. John Cabot, at the corner of Centre and Cabot Streets, and recently removed.
Mr. Cotton married Mary, daughter of Mr. Robert Gibbs, of Boston, February 19, 1719, and had eleven children, five sons and
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
six daughters. His ministry extended over a period of forty-two and a half years. In his will, he says, --
First and principally, I commend my soul into the hands of Almighty God, my heavenly Father, in hopes of eternal life, through the merits and pas- sion and prevailing intercession of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, my Redeemer; and my body I desire may be decently interred, at the disposal of my loving wife, in hopes of a joyful resurrection at the last day.
The following Latin epitaph is inscribed on Mr. Cotton's tomb- stone :
HIC DEPOSITUM MORI QUOD POTUIT REVERENDI VEREQUE VENERANDI JOHANNIS COTTON, ECCLESIAE NEWTONIENSIS FIDELISSIMI, PRUDENTISSIMI, DOCTISSIMIQUE PASTORIS, CONCIONANDI TUM PRECANDI FACULTATE CELEBERRIMI PIETATE SPECTATIS- SIMI, MORIBUS SANCTISSIMIS UNDEQUAQUE
ET SUAVISSIMIS AB OMNIBUS BENE MERITI, DEPLORATIQUE AUDITORIBUS PRAECIPUE, QUIBUS VEL MORTUUS CONCIONARI NON DESINIT.
FAMA LONGE LATEQUE VOCALIUS ET DIUTIUS MARMORE DURATISSIMO, NOMEN PERDULCE PROCLAMABIT. MORBO, NON SENECTA FRACTUS, E VITA DECESSIT MAII 17, A. D. 1757, AETATIS SUAE 64, OFFICII MINISTRALIS 43.
TRANSLATION.
Here is deposited all that was mortal of the Reverend and truly venerable John Cotton, the most faithful, prudent and learned pastor of the church of Newton, renowned for his ability in preaching and in prayer, distinguished for his piety, honored of all for his holy life, and deeply lamented especially by his congregation, to whom, being dead, he yet speaketh. Fame will proclaim his beloved name far and wide, with a louder and more lasting voice than the most enduring marble. Broken, not by age but by sickness, he died May 17, 1757, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and the forty-third of his ministry.
Mr. Cotton published, in 1729, with other discourses, a sermon on the death of his brother, Rev. Nathaniel Cotton (H. C. 1717), of Bristol; in 1734, a sermon at the ordination of his brother, Ward Cotton (H. C. 1729), as minister of Hampton; and in 1739, four sermons addressed to the young, from Zechariah II : 4, " Run, speak to this young man."
Mr. Cotton left two slaves, a man and woman. The first, Quar- tus, went into the service of the British army, and it is not known
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WHITEFIELD'S PREACHING.
what afterwards became of him; the other, Phillis, remained, an incumbrance to the estate.
Two seasons of special religious interest occurred during the ministry of Mr. Cotton, the first in the years 1727 and 1728, the second in 1741 and 1742. From December 31, 1727, to April 21, 1728, a period of less than four months, fifty were admitted to the church. This was a season of awakening also in the churches in Boston. It was directly after the great earthquake, which occurred October 29, 1727. At that time eighty were admitted to the Old South church in Boston. The second season of revival occurred in Newton about the year 1741. From June 28, 1741, to April 4, 1742,- a space of ten months,- one hundred and four new mem- bers were admitted to the church. The influence of such a season of religious interest on the sparse population of the town must have been long felt among the people. This was the era of those wonderful revivals in the time of President Edwards, which pre- vailed in various portions of New England, and especially in the region of the Connecticut River.
The celebrated preacher, Rev. George Whitefield, about six years later visited New England, and preached in Newton "before crowded and attentive audiences." He preached November 3, 1748, in the period of Mr. Cotton, and September 20, 1770, in the pastorate of Mr. Meriam. "This was ten days before Mr. White- field died at Newburyport. His visit to Newton, on the former occasion, produced a very happy impression, and numbers became interested in the things of religion." In connection with his labors at the second visit, some hopeful conversions, and new vigor was infused into many a Christian life. The preaching of Mr. White- field was the occasion of the springing up of New Light churches, so called, in derision, by those who doubtless misunderstood them. The doctrine of the new birth, and the obligation of personal faith in Christ and individual consecration to God, savored of mysticism in the view of many. Whitefield's ministry brought them, as it were, a new gospel,- the result of new light from heaven, which the converts professed to have received. Multitudes would not believe such things, and turned them into ridicule. But one of these New Light organizations in Newton was the nursery in which the First Baptist church had its germ.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
LOCATION OF THE MEETING-HOUSE .- THE THIRD MEETING-HOUSE .- TOWN RECORDS.
ALTHOUGH the settlement of Mr. Cotton, as the minister of the town, was wholly amicable, the vexed question of the location of the meeting-house was not yet solved. The remote inhabitants were too conscientious to cut the Gordian knot by absenting them- selves from worship, as men would have done in modern times. Indeed the stringency of the laws forbade such a solution of the difficulty. They were moreover sufficiently in earnest in what seemed to them a matter of right, to refuse to sit down peaceably under what they regarded as oppression. On the 23d of November, 1714, twenty days subsequent to the ordination, a committee was chosen "to look for the most convenient place near the Centre, to erect a meeting-house, and also to look out convenient ways thereto." This committee reported December 7, 1714, "that there is two places proposed to be convenient, viz., one place about forty rods south of the centre, and one other place, twenty-seven rods nor-west of the centre." The report was accepted by the majority, but the question was still a matter of debate. For under date of May 13, 1715, we find on record the following vote, which indi- cates that the inhabitants despaired of agreement among them- selves, and sought the aid of legislative interposition :
At a towne meeting lawfully warned and regularly assembled, voated by the inhabitanc of said towne, that they do freely and fully and absolutely re- fer themselves to the Honorab'll Generall Court to fix a pertickular place by a Commitye, for to erect a meeting house upon for the use of the whole towne; the inhabitanc having free liberty to make their pleas for theire sev- erall rights before said Commitye; and farther, that they will sitt downe satisfied with what the honorable Court shall do and confirme; and that we will erect a meeting house upon said place within the terme of five years , next ensewinge.
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NEW LOCATION.
The Selectmen were appointed to petition the General Court to appoint a committee, as contemplated in the above vote, and in March following, 1716, a committee was selected to treat with Mr. Nathaniel Parker* for the land upon which the new meeting- house was to be erected.
The report of the committee was accepted by the General Court, and that body ordered "that the meeting-house remain where it now is for the space of five years, and then a new meet- ing-house be erected in such place near the centre of the town as shall be agreed upon."
On the tenth of April, 1716, at a town meeting appointed to hear the report of the committee on the selection of the spot of land for the new meeting- house, and to take any further action which might be necessary, for the con- firmation of the agreement already entered into,- the town most seriously considering the unhappy circumstances they labor under, by reason of the overgrowing contentions there has been in the town, about the place or places for the public worship of God in said town, and there being little or no prospect of its being otherwise without a spirit of condescension and self- denial, and also considering the several steps which have been taken for the better accommodating the town in said affairs, as by application to the Gen- eral Court, the vote of the town on May 13, 1715, and the agreement of the inhabitants of the said town at their meeting March 16, 1716,-which agree- ment, if fully confirmed, gives the best, if not the only, prospect of settling Newtown in love and peace,-the town being therefore desirous to confirm said agreement, as much as in them lies, passed the following votes :
" 1. That the report of the committee is well approved of and accepted by the town.
"2. That there shall be a committee fully authorized and impowered, in the name and behalf, and to the only use and behoof of said town, to pur- chase the acre and a half and twenty rods of land of Mr. Nathaniel Parker, that lieth between the house of Jonathan Goddard and William Burrig, upon the highest ground on the south side of the field, to set a meeting-house upon, for the use of the inhabitants of the whole town, and to take of said Parker a sufficient deed, well executed, as soon as may be.
"3. That there shall be a meeting-house for the public worship of God, erected, built and finished in said town, of sufficient dimensions to entertain all the inhabitants of said town at the proper cost and charge of the whole town, within the term of four years next ensuing the 13th day of May, 1716,
* Nathaniel Parker married Margaret, daughter of Capt. Noah Wiswall, settled on part of the Wiswall land, and bought the house and land formerly owned by Lieut. Ebenezer Wiswall, of his three nephews, in 1694. He was an enterprising man, and it was to him that John Clark in 1708 sold part of the saw-mill, steam and eel weir, with half an acre of land at Newton Upper Falls. Nathaniel Parker was the son of Samuel Parker, of Dedham. He was born March 26, 1670, and died Feb. 28, 1747, aged 77.
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
the said meeting-house to be set upon the acre and a half and about twenty rods of land before mentioned, as it is staked out in the field of said Parker, between the house of Jonathan Goddard and William Burrig, in Newton, upon the highest ground on the south side of the field. The which meeting- house, so set and finished, after the expiration of four years, and in the [manner] now expressed, shall be the only meeting-house for the public worship of God within and for the whole town, and the minister for the time to conform to this vote accordingly."
A committee was appointed to lay the action of the town before the General Court for their approval, and the Selectmen reported that they had " actually laid out and opened a highway, two rods wide, for the northerly part of the town to the proposed spot for the meeting-house, beginning at the Mill lane, near the head of the Millpond."
On the ninth of June, 1716, the committee of the General Court viewed the proposed spot on Nathaniel Parker's land, " which, in the opinion of the Selectmen, was the most suitable spot for accommodating the greatest number of inhabitants, - it being about twenty-eight rods south southeast, near a quarter of a point east from the centre of the town, according to Joseph Burnap's survey."
In March, 1717, the town voted to build a meeting-house, fifty- seven (57) feet long, forty-five (45) feet wide, and twenty-five (25) feet between joints ; also, appointed John Spring, Samuel Trues- dale and Captain Thomas Prentice a committee "to procure boards, shingles, clapboards, and long timber, such as cannot be had in the town." A building committee was appointed, and £200 were voted at the town meetings in 1717, 1718 and 1720 succes- sively, to commence and carry forward the work.
While this work was in hand, March 24, 1720, the dwelling- house owned and occupied by the Rev. Mr. Cotton was burnt, but immediately rebuilt on the same site.
To those who live at a period a hundred and sixty years away, the contentions of the inhabitants in regard to the location of their meeting-house seem unreasonable and puerile. All that was gained by them seems to us of little value. The new meeting-house, the third that was built in the town, stood on the same lot which has ever since been the site of the First Parish church. And a change of location of a little over half a mile was the only issue of all their bad blood and ill feeling, their separations, and angry speeches, and sharp discussions.
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NEW GRIEVANCES.
VOTED, to build pews in the new meeting-house, and seats for the boys by the side of the house; to have the windows glazed with diamond glass, to build a porch over the east door, and to sell the old meeting-house.
In March, 1721, it was "voted that the £200 rate, granted to build the meeting-house, be sunk, and not collected ; and in lieu thereof, that the town make use of the bills of credit, granted by the General Court, to the several towns in the province. Mr. Jackson gives the following explanation of these bills of credit :
Owing to the total failure of the Canada expedition in 1690, the Colony issued £50,000 of bills of credit, bearing five per cent. interest, to defray the expenses of that disastrous expedition. These were the first of that speeies of paper money which was multiplied to such a ruinous extent at subsequent periods.
The new meeting-house was ready for use by the church late in the autumn. The first meeting was held in it November 5, 1721. Mr. Cotton preached from the text I Kings VI : 11-13, "And the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them, then will I perform my word with thee, which. I spake unto David thy father : and I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel."
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